


Metamorphosis

by Rose_of_Pollux



Series: The Piper Trilogy [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Season 6B)
Genre: Canon-typical peril, Chameleon Arch, Gen, general warnings associated with Androgums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 16:17:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5934853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_of_Pollux/pseuds/Rose_of_Pollux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Season 6B, post-"The Two Doctors." After learning about Dastari's experiments on the Doctor, the Rani brings her old classmate, along with his Scottish companion, back to Space Station Chimera for a new series of experiments. With two Grigs of Androgums aiding the Rani, the Doctor and Jamie may never be the same again...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This Just Doesn't Seem to be Our Day

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: The characters aren't mine, and the story is! This fic is a Season 6B fic, taking place after the events of "The Two Doctors" (and also taking place after the drabbles I wrote for that serial, from my Jamie drabble series, "Those Who Help Us Most to Grow"—the Loyaulte Me Lie mini-arc, and the Taking the Long Way Home standalone drabble).

Jamie couldn't help but smirk in amusement as the Doctor served up breakfast for the both of them.

"Fish again?" he queried.

"This is some of the best quality gumblejack from this side of the galaxy!" the Time Lord said. "And after I've taken great pains to ensure that it is seasoned to nothing less than absolute perfection, the least you can do is eat it!"

Jamie stared at the Doctor in surprise.

"…I was only joking."

"Oh. Yes. I knew that; so was I."

"Were ye?" Jamie asked, picking up a knife and fork and starting on the fish. "Ye've been acting strange lately."

"Strange?" the Doctor asked, now fetching the teakettle. "Whatever do you mean by that?"

"I don' know…" Jamie said. "Ye havenae been acting like yer old self lately. The only time ye were anywhere close was when we were at the pub last night. …Is something bothering ye?"

"Really!? I can give you my assurance, Jamie, that I am perfectly fine— _oh, my giddy aunt_!"

The Scot nearly jumped out of his chair.

"What!? What happened!?"

The Doctor was staring inside the teakettle, gingerly sniffing at it.

"Jamie… what is this in the teakettle?"

The Scot turned red.

"Aye, that would be some scotch, from the pub last night."

"…And _why_ is there scotch in my teakettle?"

"…It's fer an experiment!" Jamie blurted out, after thinking for a moment. "Ye're always telling me to broaden my horizons and take the initiative to learning aboot science, so I'm trying an… experiment, just like ye always do…" He trailed off, wincing as the Doctor placed a hand to his forehead.

"…You didn't want to waste any scotch. And all you could find in my pockets was the teakettle."

"Aye… Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"I imagine it did," the Doctor sighed, placing the teakettle on the table. "Oh, Jamie, what am I going to do with you…?"

"I don' know, but it's nae fair that ye can use yer touch-telepathy to tell when I'm lying. I ne'er know when ye're telling the truth or nae. But ye don' see me trying to read yer mind, do ye?"

"You can't."

"Well, it's nae as though I havenae tried!"

"Well, touch-telepathy is something that comes more naturally for some species than others," the Doctor said. "The Gallifreyans, for instance…."

"How nice for ye, to be able to read the thoughts of the lesser species whenever ye like…" Jamie muttered.

"Jamie!"

The Scot looked up.

"I do believe _you_ are the one who isn't 'acting normally,' Jamie!"

The Doctor and Jamie stared at each other for a long time before the Doctor finally managed a wan smile.

"Look at us," he said, sitting down at the breakfast table. "I do believe we're _both_ a bundle of nerves. We've been running all sorts of missions for the Agency lately; we've been pushed to the breaking point."

Jamie smiled back.

"Think we'll ever get back to normal?"

"I daresay we shall, once we're allowed to relax," the Doctor said. "Aha, I know the very thing! We haven't been given any other missions since our last one; I say we spend some time visiting the Eye of Orion and do absolutely nothing!"

"There're no beasties in this Eye of Orion?" Jamie asked.

"None, Jamie. It's where many intergalactic travelers go to relax after difficult journeys."

"Aye, then let's go there," Jamie said. "Oh, and… Doctor?"

"Yes, Jamie?"

"For what it's worth, this is good fish."

The Doctor smiled.

"Thank you, Jamie. And I'm sure that, somehow, your little 'experiment' with the teakettle will prove useful—"

The Doctor's train of thought quickly derailed as the TARDIS lurched violently; the contents of the breakfast table began to spill to the floor, and Jamie quickly saved the scotch-filled teakettle before it spilled. His relief at accomplishing this feat, however, was short-lived as he saw the look of concern on the Doctor's face. There was much about the TARDIS that Jamie didn't understand, despite having traveled with the Doctor for 13 years; one thing he did know, though, was that if the Doctor was worried about something, then he'd better be worried about it, too.

"Doctor, what is it?" he asked.

"I don't know for certain," the Time Lord said, as they raced back to the console room. "But if it's what I think it is… Oh, crumbs!"

The console monitor was flashing all sorts of warnings written in the Gallifreyan language; Jamie caught a few familiar words that the Doctor had been teaching him—

"Control loss… remote pilot…?" he asked, recognizing the phrases.

"I'm afraid so," the Doctor said. "Something's caught the TARDIS in a retractor beam; I can't escape from it!"

"Can we nae dematerialize!?"

"No; the dematerialization circuit has been disabled by the beam!" the Doctor hissed, pounding a fist onto the console in frustration. "That is Time Lord technology being used against us!"

"It must be the Celestial Intervention Agency…" Jamie said. "They don' like the idea of us going to the Eye of Orion."

"No, that couldn't be it; I disabled all of their excess listening channels; they couldn't possibly have heard us!" the Doctor assured him. "Perhaps if we see where we're going, we might be able to get an idea…"

He adjusted the monitor, and an all-too-familiar sight appeared upon the screen—a place Jamie once described as "twenty castles in the sky."

"Doctor…" the Scot said, going pale at the sight.

He clung to the Doctor's arm, and the Time Lord didn't even need his touch-telepath abilities to read the piper's unease.

"I know, Jamie. I know," he said, quietly, as he gripped the human's shoulder. "Space Station Chimera."

"I ne'er wanted to see that horrid place again as long as I lived," Jamie said, shaking his head in denial. "Doctor, please, isn't there anything ye can do to get us away from here? _Anything_!?"

The pleading tone of his voice made both of the Doctor's hearts twist. It took a lot for the normally stalwart Highlander to turn craven. And though he wanted to escape this place as much as Jamie did, there was nothing he could do.

"We shall… just have to be careful once we land," the Doctor said. "We'll find that retractor beam, disable it, and leave immediately."

Jamie nodded, shuddering in spite of himself. Neither he nor the Doctor said another word as the TARDIS landed, her lights still illuminated in protest. The Doctor still gripped Jamie's shoulder.

"We'll be alright as long as we stay together," he said, trying to reassure himself, as well as the piper. He gave another wan smile. "So no wandering off."

"That's the last thing I'll do," Jamie vowed.

"Good lad," the Time Lord said, opening the TARDIS doors.

They both braced themselves as they exited the TARDIS and entered the dimly-lit corridors of the space station.

The first thing that gripped Jamie was the lack of something that had been here the last time he had been forced to stay here.

"They're all gone."

"I beg your pardon, Jamie?"

"The… bodies," he said, shuddering again. "When the Sontarans came and…"

"Oh, yes. Yes, I see… Or, rather, I don't see—as you so aptly put it…" The Doctor glanced at an electronic calendar. "But we are definitely here at a point in time three months after our last visit."

"Someone must have come here and cleared e'erything," Jamie said. "But who? And why?"

"Whoever it is apparently has some business with us," the Doctor said. "I'm hoping that all they require are some answers as to what happened here."

"But ye said that it was Time Lord technology that trapped the TARDIS. The Time Lords already know what happened."

"I ought to know; they wouldn't stop questioning me!" the Doctor scoffed. "And that is what's worrying me, too…"

He suddenly turned around, his eyes narrowing as he glared down the darkened corridor.

"Doctor?"

"I think something was watching us—around that corner," he murmured. "Can you see anything?"

"I cannae even see the corner!" Jamie lamented, squinting in the hopes that he could see in the dark better. This proved futile; his human vision, like his attempts at touch telepathy, was pathetic when compared to the Doctor's Gallifreyan senses.

"Well, it is sure to have gone by now," the Doctor said, turning back around. His arm was still protectively around Jamie as they continued to walk.

The creature hiding behind the corner didn't dare to move until they were out of sight; even then, he waited, only moving when a fellow member of his species arrived.

"Tell her that he is here," the creature hissed. "With a Tellurian in tow! Ask her if the Tellurian is to be given to us!"

* * *

The level of quiet and the lack of any sign of who or what was in the space station with them was more than a little unnerving for the Time Lord and the Scot.

"This is more than a little vexing," the Doctor muttered. "I don't like not knowing what we're up against. I can't make bricks without clay!"

"…Di'n Sherlock Holmes say that?"

"Who do you think taught him that?"

Jamie rolled his eyes, but then, he stopped in his tracks.

"Jamie? What is it?"

"I know how we could possible find oot who is in here!" he said. "Whoever is in here… would they use the computer?"

"Possibly. I quite imagine they would, if they wanted to know what happened during the massacre; it's clear that they've cleaned it up rather well…"

"Then ye just follow me," Jamie said, dragging the Doctor to the main computer room. He saw the controls on the table.

"I remember this room…" the Doctor said. "The Sontarans brought me in here—made me stand in front of that wall. Never did know why; there didn't seem to be any point to it. …Though, mind you, I was unconscious for a good while after that…"

"There's a camera in that wall," Jamie said. "And it's part of the computer; it makes a holographic projection of whoever had their picture taken by the camera. If I can just remember what yer other self did…"

The Doctor watched him, proudly, as the Scot began to use the computer controls. Here was an eighteenth-century Highlander, who had once thought photography to be a form of witchcraft, using highly advanced computer equipment! While the Doctor knew that he could easily figure out the controls himself, he was more than content with letting his companion figure it out for himself.

"Aha!" Jamie exclaimed. "Doctor! I think I have it!"

"Well done, Jamie! Let's have a look, then!"

Jamie hit one more button, and the hologram appeared on the platform in front of them, in one of the large, glass cylinders.

It was a feminine image; the being's face was angular, and dark hair flowed down her shoulders.

But it was her eyes that made the piper nervous—piercing, cold eyes that seemed to be calculating…

A sharp intake of breath from the Doctor brought the piper to the present; he looked back at him.

"Do ye know that lassie, Doctor?"

"Yes, Jamie," he replied, quietly. "I'm afraid I do." He glared at the image, staring into her piercing eyes. "She's a Gallifreyan, and one of the most brilliant ones to ever exist—the Rani."


	2. A Thousand Points of Spite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brasher the Androgum is an OC of aragonite, who gave me free reign to do what I wished with him, to which I am very grateful.

Jamie looked at the image with some amount of interest.

"The Rani…" he repeated. "Aye, well, she's nae wearing one of those ridiculous robes that the other Gallifreyans wear. And if ye know her, and she's brilliant, there's nothing to worry aboot, is there, then?"

"Oh, Jamie, I'm afraid we've got rather a lot to worry about," the Doctor said. "Yes, she is a renegade, like I am, and she is brilliant… But she is obsessed with scientific experiments—experiments that usually mean nothing but trouble for other species. She was dealing with giant rats at the time of her exile…"

"…Giant rats?"

"Yes, and not all of them are accounted for. I think she lost one during a visit to Earth. How else would you explain the sightings of the Giant Rat of Sumatra?"

"Oh, aye…" Jamie said. "But how do ye know her?"

The Doctor was now accessing the computer terminal not answering Jamie's query; his mind was clearly elsewhere.

"Doctor?" Jamie asked.

The Time Lord glanced at him, briefly, before returning to work.

"We studied at the Academy together," he explained. "We were part of a little inner circle—the Master and the War Chief were a part of it, too. The Rani was the most brilliant out of all of us."

"Smarter than ye? _Really_?"

"Don't sound so smug! We're both in very great danger!" the Doctor insisted. "Fortunately, I seem to have accessed the retractor beams of the space station. I just need to input a few more commands and… Ha!" He clapped his hands together in triumph. "That's deactivated it! Come along, Jamie; we can hopefully be away from here before she realizes what's happened!"

Jamie wanted to know why the Rani was someone to flee from, especially if she knew the Doctor from before. But, in the back of his mind, the mention of the Master and the War Chief made him realize that the Doctor's old Academy friends were Time Lords to fear. Of course, even the other, non-renegade Time Lords that Jamie had met seemed to hold contempt for him, as well, dismissing him as a primitive creature; associating with him was considered to be beneath them.

He pushed the thoughts aside as he followed the Doctor back to the TARDIS, standing off to the side as the Doctor threw the dematerialization switch.

Nothing happened, and the Time Lord's face fell.

"What's happened?" Jamie asked, as the Doctor threw the switch back and forth, with no results.

"I don't know," the Doctor said, looking concerned. "But if I know the Rani, I can guess… Oh, crumbs; that's done it…"

The screen displayed another message in Gallifreyan; once again, Jamie tried to decipher it based on what he had learned in his lessons.

"There's… another retractor beam?" Jamie asked. "A second one?"

"Yes; more than likely, it's something of her own creation," the Doctor said. "Altering Time Lord technology for her own ends is no difficult task for her. As I said, she was brilliant at the Academy."

"What now, then?" the Scot asked.

"Now? Now, you will stay here while I go and find and deactivate the other retractor beam."

"…What."

"I think I made myself quite clear. Or must I repeat it?"

"Ye're nae going oot there alone."

"Jamie—"

"Doctor, I've traveled with ye for thirteen years. I know ye well enough to know when I can leave ye to yerself. And that's almost never. Ye need me."

"Jamie, I am five hundred years old; I got along without you for four hundred and eighty-seven of those years."

"Just barely, no doubt; I don' know how ye did it…" Jamie began, but he trailed off, remembering how Peri's Doctor had not been with him—and hadn't been for centuries, but the sound of it.

Jamie clung to the Doctor's arm now; if his time with the Doctor was limited, then the Scot wanted to spend as much of it with him as he could.

The physical contact allowed the Doctor's touch-telepathic abilities to understand Jamie's sentiments, as well.

"Oh, Jamie…" he sighed, but quickly realized that there was no easy answer to this. "Very well; but you mustn't wander off. And you must do exactly as I tell you; do you understand?"

"Aye."

"Good. Now, then… We mustn't waste any time; we shall need to do a very quick sweep of each and every room until we find that second retractor beam. As I said, it won't be a part of the machinery on the space station, so keep your eyes open for some contraption that looks out-of-place."

He placed his hand on the console button to open the TARDIS doors, but didn't press down just yet.

"Doctor?"

"There is one more thing that concerns me," he said. "And that would be what the Rani was doing here on Space Station Chimera in the first place. It's highly unlikely that she came in here with the intent of dragging my TARDIS in here."

"What do ye mean?"

"Well, you know how famous Dastari was…"

"Aye. …Oh, ye think the Rani was here to see Dastari?"

"Yes… Yes, and I do think that it wasn't for the first time, either," the Doctor said. "Dastari's sudden interest in genetic manipulations may not be a coincidence. The Rani might have been influencing him; and perhaps the Androgums and the Sontarans might have originally planning to prepare their little plot for her, only to change their minds and wait for my people to send someone else."

"…And it was ye they sent," Jamie said, quietly.

"Yes, well… that was just a bit of hard luck—not unlike the kind of luck we usually have to deal with."

"Aye…."

"But that doesn't matter now," the Doctor said. "We made it past that, and now we need to make it past this. Now, Jamie, I want you to stay right by my side at all times—unless I tell you to run. And when I say run…"

"I know, I know. Run."

"Yes."

They didn't say anything for a moment; the Doctor's aquamarine eyes met Jamie's darker ones.

"How bad is the Rani, Doctor?"

"Let me put it this way, Jamie. You can very often stand back and let a fool bungle spectacularly with minimal input from you. But a genius can be the most dangerous adversary of all. And now I think you understand why I'm choosing to retreat; one must pick one's battles, and this is one that I would rather avoid."

"Aye."

"Now, then, we shall have to be quick. Are you ready, Jamie?"

"Ready."

The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors and, taking Jamie by the hand, led him outside. The doors closed behind them as they ran through the darkened corridors of the Space Station once more.

* * *

The Rani wasn't at all surprised to see that the Space Station's retractor beam had been deactivated. In fact, considering that this was the Doctor she was dealing with, it should have been expected. Now, all that remained was for the Doctor to search for the other retractor beam… only to find something most unexpected along with it.

The Time Lady turned her head ever so slightly as she heard someone approach. A burly Androgum stood in the doorway of the room, his eyes blazing.

"The other Time Lord is here," he said, his mouth watering. "And he has a Tellurian with him!"

The Rani hid her disdain as she faced the Androgum.

"Priorities, Brasher," she said, calmly. "You came to me because you wanted me to continue Dastari's experiments on the Doctor. With Dastari dead, there was no one else who could proceed with where he had left off."

"Yes…" Brasher grumbled. "I united the Quancine and Franzine Grigs so that we might avenge the deaths of Shockeye and Chessene—and the greatest vengeance of all would be to have the Time Lord restored to his hybrid state with Shockeye's genetic material, and have him lead the Androgums to conquer and devour worlds across space and time—starting with Gallifrey, to rid us of any opposition."

"You're welcome to Gallifrey, as far as I'm concerned," the Rani said. "I am an exile, and have no sympathies towards them. But you won't get anywhere if you allow yourself to be distracted by chasing after primitive creatures. Besides, the Earthling may end up being of some use."

"Use?"

"The Doctor I remember had no sympathies for the lesser creatures of the galaxy; I am curious to know why this one is traveling with him. So, I want you to pass the word to the others to stay out of sight until the Doctor finds the other retractor beam." Her eyes narrowed. "Have I made myself clear? I know how you Androgums are slaves to your instincts."

Brasher scowled, but nodded as he retreated. The Rani watched him leave before turning back to the surveillance footage. Now, it was just a matter of waiting.


	3. In Too Deep

After traveling together for thirteen years, the Doctor knew that Jamie was as plucky and loyal as they came. Even though he knew that their freedom was reduced to whatever they could snatch in between missions, Jamie never complained—no matter how dangerous or grueling the missions were. And, sometimes, even their downtime was just as dangerous and grueling, as it was at that moment. Even then, the Scot was always happy just to be with the Doctor. And that was why the set frown on Jamie's face didn't go unnoticed by the Time Lord as they darted through the corridors of the space station.

He was already forming the words in his mind to bring this up, but it was Jamie who spoke first—albeit about another subject.

"Doctor…?" Jamie said, after some time. "Ye know, there are controls to the computers inside the walls—an entire network of wires and things in passageways. Do ye suppose the Rani might have set the other retractor beam in there?"

The Doctor paused.

"That is a possibility," he said. "We'll need to find a way into those passages, though; I imagine they're quite convoluted."

"Ye just follow me, Doctor; I know the way," the Scot said, suddenly darting off in one direction.

"Jamie!" the Doctor scolded, running off after him. "I thought I told you not to wander off!"

"I'm trying to show ye the short cut!" Jamie said, heading back to the main computer room. The Doctor watched, quietly, as Jamie now moved one of the panels on the wall, admitting entry into the passageways.

"Oh, my word…" the Time Lord mused. "How did you find out about this?"

Jamie gave him an awkward look.

"I… had to live here for a while," he said, looking away. "After they took ye away. I found this place by accident, really. The Sontarans wiped oot everyone else; the only reason I survived is because I hid here…"

"…Ah."

Jamie led him on in silence, and as the Doctor followed, he began to understand why Jamie was so upset. It had been weeks before the Sontarans and the Androgums had transported the Doctor to Spain, meaning that it had been weeks before his Sixth self and Peri had found Jamie. Coming back here had reopened old wounds, the Doctor knew; and Jamie, already a child of war, would have had to go through something like that once again.

"You thought I was dead, didn't you?" the Doctor asked, as they dodged wires. "After they took me?"

"…Aye, for a while," Jamie said, not looking back at him. "They had a hologram of ye in that computer to make it look as though ye'd died. I tried looking for ye, but when the Sontarans started massacring e'eryone, I hid here…"

He paused, indicating his "nest," which was untouched from when Peri and her Doctor had found him. Jamie's Doctor took a look at the nest for a moment before placing a hand on Jamie's shoulder and ushering him along.

"I am sorry, Jamie."

Jamie just grunted, still averting his gaze.

"It's nae the first time I believed ye were dead," he sighed. "I've lost count of the number of times… Ye'd think I'd be used to it. I suppose it's ironic; ye're the one who's supposed to be immortal…"

"Yes, well… it's a highly conditional immortality."

"I've noticed."

Jamie quickened his pace as they walked, deliberately putting more distance between himself and the Doctor. Just as the security clings and grips to the shoulders were a method of communication between the human and the Gallifreyan, so was the lack of contact—a message that the Doctor received and understood.

"You know, Jamie, they told me you had died," the Doctor informed him.

"What…?!" the Scot exclaimed, looking back at him at last.

"Yes; Chessene told me that the Sontarans took no prisoners."

"Aye, they di'n…" Jamie agreed. He mused for a moment as they continued onward. "Seeing the other Doctor—Peri's Doctor—it made me realize… I wasnae with ye anymore. …I die, don' I? It's the only thing that would stop ye from traveling with me now."

"Jamie—"

"Look, Doctor, there is no getting aroond it. I'm an old man now."

"…Jamie, you are _thirty-five_!"

"Aye, exactly."

The Doctor almost said something before remembering the life expectancies of the 1740s.

"Trust me, Jamie, you have a great number of years ahead of you yet. Well, you do if I have anything to say about it."

"But it will end, sometime."

"Jamie, I don't want to hear another word from you about this!" the Doctor said, sternly. "I've looked after you well for this long, and I have no intentions of stopping—which is why I'm trudging through these dusty passageways, trying to find a way out of here so that the Rani poses no threat to you!"

"Aye, well, we're almost all the way through…" Jamie began, but he trailed off as they neared the end of the passageway. "Doctor, look!"

He aimed a torch at the end of the passageway, revealing a large, electronic box attached to the wiring that was letting out a slow and steady hum.

"That wasnae there before," Jamie stated. "I know my way around these passageways all too well. Is that the other retractor beam?"

"I do believe so!" the Doctor said, a grin of triumph forming on his lined face. "Oh, clever—quite clever! She's wired it into the computer, but you can't activate from the console panel."

"But… that means that the Rani knows aboot these passageways, too!" Jamie realized, his eyes going wide.

The grin vanished from the Doctor's face in an instant, and he grasped the Scot's shoulder, holding him in close proximity.

"Stay very, very close to me, Jamie," the Doctor murmured. "The Rani could be anywhere, watching us." He cursed his own stupidity; the Rani could have been listening to their entire conversation!

"Aye," Jamie said. "So, we go deactivate it, and then ye use the Stattenheim to bring the TARDIS here, and we can leave?"

The Doctor's face fell.

"Doctor, nae…"

"I left the Stattenheim in the pocket of my other trousers!"

" _Doctor_ …" Jamie groaned. "Ye know, if ye dressed like me, ye wouldnae have that problem!"

"This isn't the time to discuss that!" the Doctor countered. "We'll have to make a quick retreat once I deactivate the second retractor beam. Do not, under any circumstances, leave my side. Is that clear?"

"Like crystal."

"Good."

He clung to Jamie's arm as he slowly made his way towards the box. The Doctor had, thankfully, remembered to carry the sonic screwdriver, and began to work on the controls.

"Keep your guard up, Jamie."

The Scot nodded and looked around, seeing nothing but an odd contraption a few feet from them.

"Doctor…" he said. "What's that?"

"Not now, Jamie!"

Jamie now reached a hand out towards the object, which was suspended from the ceiling of the passageway by a wire. It was some sort of headset, and there appeared to be a pocket watch stuck in front of it.

"There, that's done it!" the Doctor said, pleased. "Now, we've just got to get back as quickly as we— _Jamie, don't touch that_!"

Jamie yelped as he felt the Doctor's hand smack the back of his own, causing him to let go of the contraption, which then swung back and forth. The Doctor was staring at it with a look of dawning horror on his face.

"That's what this is about," he said, pulling a very confused Jamie even closer to him and then practically dragging him down the passageway the way they had come. "Oh, I understand this all now…"

"Aye? Well, I understand _nothing_."

"That is a highly-modified chameleon arch, Jamie. Gallifreyans use it to convert specimens of one species into a completely different species. The Rani has, no doubt, made some alterations to it—and she's lured me here to help test it!"

"Oh," the Scot said, realizing the gravity of the situation. "And if she put it right next to the second retractor beam… then… she wanted ye to see it."

"Yes," the Doctor sighed. "And that means that we've walked headlong into a trap."


	4. Many Too Many

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor's pocketful of Gallifreyan gemstones is a nod to the Doctor Who Legacy game. Also, my "Gallifreyans are crocodilians" headcanon makes a return, albeit in a passing mention.

Jamie clung to the Doctor's arm as he stared, unblinkingly, at the chameleon arch.

"Well, it doesnae matter, does it?" the Scot asked. "We've deactivated the retractor beam; all we have to do is…"

"Jamie," the Doctor said. "Jamie I want you to get out of here. Run. Run for the TARDIS, and don't let anything stop you."

"Aye, then, let's go."

"Jamie, go."

The Scot shook his head, knowing exactly what the Time Lord was trying to do.

"No," he said, tightening his cling. "Nae withoot ye, Doctor. I won' leave ye to face the Rani alone—"

"Jamie, _for once_ , do as I say—and run!" the Doctor suddenly bellowed at him. "Now! RUN!"

Jamie let go of him, startled and hurt.

"But—"

"Back to the TARDIS! _GO_!"

The Scot turned and ran, and the Doctor forced himself not to react to the look on his companion's face. By his choice, he would never be that harsh and sharp with Jamie, but the situation called for the Scot to be as safe as possible. And he knew that if the Rani were to get her hands on Jamie, it would be disastrous for the Scot.

He was banking on Jamie's knowledge of the passageways to get him back to the TARDIS safely; as for himself, he fully intended to take the long way around and draw the Rani's attention.

The Doctor now moved to dart away down the passageway, but soon ran headlong into something massive. Scowling, he looked up, and the frown on his face changed to a look of utter shock as he found himself staring at an Androgum.

Briefly cursing in his own tongue, the Doctor moved to double back, only to find the other side of the passageway blocked by more Androgums, as well.

"…Crumbs…"

There was one more trick up his sleeve; the small gemstones in his pocket, made of highly volatile elements and found only on Gallifrey—they could unleash a small charge of energy when thrown, which could be positively devastating in large numbers if they reacted upon striking something.

It was as he was reaching for his pockets that he heard a familiar voice.

"Grab his arms."

Each of his arms was seized by an Androgum, who hoisted him off of his feet. More Androgums were arriving down the passageway, carrying various items. The Doctor struggled in vain against his captors; eventually, he was bound by a rope that one of the Androgums had brought with him.

He soon cast aside his personal worries, as it became clear that the Androgums were now discussing Jamie.

"I only caught a fleeting glimpse of the Tellurian. The creature moves quickly."

"Fool; go after him!" another Androgum snarled. "How dare you let a prime specimen get away!?"

"He could have gone anywhere!"

"He would most likely gone back to his Time Lord's TARDIS," the first familiar voice chided. "You won't get past that. You had your chance to go after the human, and now it is lost. We have other things to focus on?"

"Other things?" the Doctor asked. "What, like associating with Androgums and having them tie up your old classmates? I've never known you to associate with depraved creatures of instinct!"

The Rani now emerged from the circle of now-angry Androgums surrounding the Doctor, who were all glaring at him for his insult.

"I see you've regenerated," she said. "And yet, you still have the same habit of being unable to control your tongue. You might wish to reconsider insulting the hungry species which now holds you captive."

"You're the one who put them up to this; I'm therefore being held captive by my own species. Had the Androgums been acting alone, I would have long since been invited to dinner. Not that they would be capable of pulling off something as elaborate as this."

"Silence!" Brasher roared, backhanding the Doctor across the face.

"As I said, insulting Androgums when surrounded by them is not construed as a good idea," the Rani said, casually. "And yet, you always seem to only learn things the hard way, don't you?"

"Not that it matters so much to you. I know why you brought me here."

"Do you?"

"You've come to continue Dastari's experiments!" the Doctor accused. "His line of work was exactly the sort of thing that interested you—genetic manipulation! I presume you've recovered his notes, and intend to augment these Androgums as he did to Chessene!"

A few of the Androgums growled at the mention of Chessene's name.

"Ah, friend of yours, was she?" the Doctor threw over his shoulder. "And I presume the Rani brought me to help her augment you all?"

"As usual, you only grasp a fraction of things, instead of the whole picture," the Rani said. "The Androgums are physically strong specimens as it is; augmenting them, taking away their strength and giving them a more Tellurian appearance won't do for what we have in store. They need their strength—and their appetites."

"…Then what do you need _me_ for!?"

"Because, you were right about one thing; I _did_ find Dastari's notes—not only the ones here, but in Spain. Apparently, you were also the subject of a few experiments… including being a recipient of a genetic transfer of Androgum DNA." The Rani smiled. "The Androgums don't need to be augmented; they only need a leader—a leader with the might and instinct of an Androgum… but the intelligence and time-travel abilities of a Time Lord."

"Then… the chameleon arch…" the Doctor said, his eyes widening in horror. "It's not for them…"

"It's for you," the Rani agreed.

The Doctor glared at her.

"No! No, I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with this! I—" He stopped short as the circle of Androgums closed in around him.

"You'll have to take it up with them," the Rani said. "They're not very pleased with how you dispatched of Chessene and Shockeye."

"That wasn't me! That was…" The Doctor trailed off again. "Oh. Well, that was _another_ me! Take it up with him!"

"We would, but as you have experience with being an Androgum-Gallifreyan hybrid, we've decided to take you," the Rani said. "This modified chameleon arch will do the work instantly, instead of putting you through another operation. All I need to do is take a sample of genetic material and use it to prime the arch; for a full transformation, only a donor's DNA is required, but since we don't want a full transformation, we'll have to use a mixture of your own genetic material and that of an Androgum. We've already decided who the donor will be. Brasher, tell him."

Brasher furiously held up a vial with a small amount of blood in it, and brandished it in the Doctor's face.

"This," he growled. "Is the blood of Shockeye!"

"Where did you get that…?"

"I got it," the Rani said. "Again, from Spain. You always were terrible at cleaning up your messes."

"Oh…"

"This is all that remains of him!" Brasher hissed at the Doctor.

"Judging by your tone of voice, it seems as though you knew him quite well, too," the Doctor said, sounding a lot calmer than he felt.

"He and I were of the same Grig."

"Ah, that… certainly explains it."

"You see before you, Time Lord, both our Grig, and Chessene's, united!" Brasher roared. "With you converted to lead us, we will unite the rest of the Androgums, and then… the universe is ours for the taking—including Gallifrey!"

"Highly ambitions plans you have— _what_!? The Androgums will never conquer Gallifrey!"

"They will with you leading them," the Rani said. "I have my own reasons for letting them lay waste to the Citadel."

"You wouldn't dare!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"Try me," she said. "I don't know why you're so defensive of the High Council; just as Goth oversaw my exile from Gallifrey, I understand that he is currently overseeing yours—waiting for a chance for you to trip up on one of your missions for the Celestial Intervention Agency."

"That's… that's beside the point!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"Oh, I _know_ why you're toeing the line," the Rani said. "You wish to continue traveling with that primitive, for reasons I will never understand."

The Androgums grew restless at the mention of this.

"The Tellurian…"

"We must find the Tellurian!"

"I told you to forget about him!" the Rani snapped at them. "Once he's converted, the Doctor will find him for you."

"Never!" the Doctor hissed.

"Fool," the Time Lady smirked. "According to Dastari's notes, not even you were above acting on the Androgums' instincts. Not that you even needed them. Have you ever told the primitive about how Gallifreyans are naturally carnivorous?"

"Even we know where to draw the line on which species to consume," the Doctor reminded her.

"That is a matter of etiquette, not morality," the Rani scoffed. "You chose to travel with the human; his fate now is due to this insistence."

"I tire of this talk!" Brasher said. "Mistress Rani, convert him now!"

"Take him to the chameleon arch," she said, now stepping over to the computer console nearby to check something.

The Doctor seized his chance; the moment the Rani's back was turned, he lunged headlong into Brasher's abdomen as the Androgum moved to lift him. The vial of Shockeye's blood dropped to the ground and rolled away. With a roar, Brasher chased after it as several other Androgums now rounded on the Doctor with their knives.

Still bound, the Time Lord rolled away as the Rani's shrieks now filled the passageway. One of the Androgums kicked him in the jaw as another sliced at his shoulder with a knife. Ignoring the pain, the Doctor still continued with his attempt of escape when, suddenly, a pair of arms succeeded in grabbing him, pulling him into a side passageway.

Instinctively, the Doctor struggled against the pair or arms holding him until his touch-telepathy quickly alerted him to the identity of their owner.

 _I'm sorry. I'm sorry I di'n listen to ye. I couldnae leave ye… nae again_ …

And as the crowd of Androgums barreled past them, the Time Lord slumped against the Scot in relief—relief that, despite hearing every word that had transpired, Jamie had not abandoned him.


	5. The Day I Lost the Light

Neither the Doctor nor Jamie said anything for a while; Jamie silently held a handkerchief to the knife wound on the Doctor's shoulder. The Time Lord could clearly sense the Scot's growing anger, and, for a moment, had to wonder exactly what Jamie was angry about.

Once he was sure that the Androgums had gone, the Doctor was about to open his mouth to speak, but froze as he felt something out-of-place. With a wince, he pulled his own handkerchief from his pocket and held it up to his mouth, and cringed again as a tooth fell out onto the cloth.

"Oh…" he groaned, softly. "What a waste of a perfectly good molar… Well, at least I shan't need a dentist to remove it this time…"

"This has happened before?" Jamie whispered.

"In my last body; I bit into a piece of candy wrong…" He trailed off. "Jamie…"

"I'm sorry," the Scot said, not meeting his gaze. His anger seemed to deflate, reassuring the Doctor that the anger had not been directed at him.

"Well," the Doctor sighed. "You did spare me an unwanted encounter with the Rani's chameleon arch. I should have realized that it was me she was after as the subject of this experiment… She wouldn't have needed me to convert _them_."

"Aye, and now we get oot of here?"

"Yes. Immediately. We'll return to Gallifrey; the Rani wouldn't dare return anywhere near the planet. Of course, she and the Androgums will do whatever they can to stop us from escaping; they've probably got my TARDIS surrounded already."

"What do we do?" Jamie asked.

"First things first, I need you to hold onto some things…" the Doctor said, taking a fob watch out of his pocket and handing it to Jamie. "This, for one."

"A watch?"

"A chameleon arch always requires one of these," the Doctor explained. "After a transformation, the subject's essence of their original species remains in a fob watch; the essence is returned if they open the watch—and that essence can be stolen by others if they open it, as well."

"Oh."

"I don't want to make this easy for the Rani, so I want you to hold onto this watch. I know she'll have one of her own, but…"

"Aye, I understand," Jamie said, placing the watch in his sporran. "Ye don' want yer own watch to be used for such a purpose. …But I won' let them take ye. I'll fight them all if I have to!"

The Doctor looked as though he was about to argue, but then shook his head and then handed over his handkerchief with the molar wrapped in it. Jamie recoiled.

" _Doctor_ …" he began, but then realized why and took the handkerchief and tooth from him. "Oh. They need a bit of your DNA to prime the chameleon arch."

"Yes, that's right; I don't want to make that easy for them, either, though all they'll need is a syringe…" The Doctor paused. "Jamie, how much did you hear back there?"

"E'erything," Jamie said, and he resumed pressing his own handkerchief to the wound on the Doctor's shoulder.

"You heard what the Rani said, then—about Gallifreyans being naturally carnivorous."

"Aye, I figured that already when I realized that ye like eating fish a lot."

"Most Gallifreyans can't stand plants at all, you see—aside from the Ceruleans, of course…" the Doctor said. "And a lot of plants have salicylic acid in them—the compound in aspirin, which is toxic to us. So, naturally, that limits our options. As she said, the meat we consume is generally decided by etiquette, not morals. And it is considered highly poor etiquette to feed off of any humanoid lifeform. Fish and tafelshrews are the choice cuisine of our people, and occasionally, we might go for something larger, but, I assure you—"

"Ye don' have to explain anything to me, Doctor," Jamie said, gently. "I trust ye; I've traveled with ye for thirteen years. …And that's why I cannae let the Rani get ye."

"Now you listen to me," the Doctor hissed, grabbing Jamie by the shoulders and pulling him close. "I don't have to tell you what the Androgums will do to you if they lay their hands on you!"

"I'm nae afraid."

"…Well, _I_ am."

That was not the reply that Jamie had been expecting.

"Afraid?"

"Jamie, I don't think you understand what I went through when Shockeye took you away. I could hear your screams… Oh, those screams… I thought I was going to lose you—after I'd only just found out that you had survived the Sontaran massacre. And I was powerless to help you…"

"But ye did help me. …Well, the other ye did."

"You know what I mean," the Doctor said.

"…Aye."

"Now, here is what we're going to do," the Doctor said. "We're going to sneak back to the TARDIS. I will hold off the Androgums while you enter the TARDIS—"

"No. Doctor, no—"

"Jamie, don't argue with me!" the Time Lord pleaded. "They need me alive. You, on the other hand…"

"I'm nae important enough and I'm just another meal to them," Jamie finished for him. "Aye, I know."

"Well, you're important to me," the Doctor said.

"And ye're important to me," Jamie countered.

"Enough of this," the Doctor said. "I _will not_ have you putting yourself in danger, is that clear!?"

Still holding Jamie's shoulders, the Doctor pulled the both of them to a standing position; Jamie scowled, but said nothing else as the Doctor led them down the corridor.

"That exit panel should be around here… Ah, there it is!" the Doctor whispered. "Stay right behind me, Jamie." He let go of Jamie, took a peek outside, and froze. "Get back, Jamie! Back! We'll have to find another way out; the Androgums are right outside…"

The Doctor turned, and a horrified expression crossed his face as he beheld Jamie in the arms of Brasher; one of the Androgum's large hands was clamped over the Scot's face, while his other arm was wrapped around Jamie's waist. The Scot was kicking his legs furiously in a futile effort to break free from Brasher's hold.

"Did you really think that you could hide the Tellurian from us, Time Lord?" Brasher sneered. He sniffed Jamie's hair. "…A bit unclean, but, still, a fine specimen—"

"Release him," the Doctor said, his voice dangerously quiet. "Release him this instant, or—"

"Threats are useless," the Rani said, stepping into view beside Brasher. The Androgums outside were now filing back into the passageway, a few of them seizing the Doctor's arms. "Take them both back to the chameleon arch."

"Mistress Rani…" Brasher said, indicating Jamie. "Could we possibly—"

"Take them _both_ to the chameleon arch!" she barked.

The Androgums obeyed, but all of them seemed to have their eyes fixed upon Jamie, who was still struggling against Brasher.

"He still doesn't know when to give up?" the Rani asked, observing Jamie's behavior with interest. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't expect anything else with him traveling around with _you_ …"

"Let him go," the Doctor said, knowing that he was going to be ignored. "Ushas, _please_ …"

"We're not at the Academy anymore, _Thete_ ," she spat, as they arrived back to where they had been before. "But if you want to save him, then you'll do as I say."

The Doctor stared at the chameleon arch.

"Yes, I… I see the situation is quite clear," he said. "But I want your word that Jamie will be released!"

"Fine, if it will make this go faster—" The Androgums immediately roared in protest. " _Quiet_! Once our plans have been realized, you can feast all you want on denizens all across the galaxy; one Tellurian will mean nothing!" She turned to the Doctor. "Go on, then. We'll handle the rest."

The Doctor's shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Jamie," he said. "When this is over, and you are free, I want you to go back to the TARDIS. Tell her to take you home, or to somewhere where you can make a good life for yourself—"

"On with it!" the Rani ordered.

One of the Androgums shoved the Doctor forward, and with a sigh, the Time Lord affixed the chameleon arch around his head.

"Prime it," the Rani ordered.

Brasher now removed his hand from Jamie's face to retrieve the vial of Shockeye's blood that he had recovered.

"Doctor!" the Scot cried. "Doctor, don' worry aboot me! Ye cannae let them—"

Brasher cuffed Jamie on the back of the head to shut him up; the Scot groaned, dazed from the hit, not even responding as the Doctor called out to him in alarm.

Brasher then handed the vial of Shockeye's blood to one Androgum and still held onto Jamie as a second Androgum used a syringe to retrieve some blood from the Doctor's open shoulder wound. Both samples of blood were placed into a special, modified compartment on the arch.

The Rani now stepped forward, silently placing a fob watch onto another portion of the arch.

"You will remember our agreement?" the Doctor said, when she was close enough.

"Will you?" she asked, simply.

Jamie snapped out of his daze in time to see the Rani step away from the Doctor, who had an unmistakable look of fear in his eyes. Before the Scot's eyes, the chameleon arch activated in a flash of light.

Nothing could have prepared Jamie for the agonized cry of pain that escaped from the Doctor's lips as the transformation began; the sound tore through the Scot's heart and soul—the audible pain of the only one left in his life… the one who had endured so much to be with him… who had always unconditionally loved and cared for him… Tears filled the Scot's eyes as his heart ached.

The Rani stood by, unmoved by her former friend's cries; there was a malicious eagerness in her eyes as the Doctor's features began to change, ever so slightly.

And then, it stopped—the only sound was the Doctor trying to catch his breath. The Rani stepped forward again, retrieving the fob watch from the arch and then releasing the Doctor from it.

"Well?" she asked. "How do you feel?"

Jamie cringed as he saw the Doctor's face; it wasn't quite the same transformation that Dastari's experiment had caused—his eyebrows had stayed the same this time, despite the Androgums' distinctive warts still dotting his face. But it was the primal look in the Doctor's eyes that made Jamie realize that it was, indeed, a transformation, and not an act, as he had so hoped it would have been.

The Doctor now glanced at the Rani, smirking.

"Hungry," he growled, his voice coarser and lacking its usual warmth.

"Good…" she replied, leading the Doctor towards a small dead-end branch of the tunnel. "I believe I can solve your problem." She then glanced over her shoulder. "Bring the ape over here!"

Brasher now carried Jamie over to them, setting him down beside the Doctor before he and the Rani now backed off.

"What is this?" Jamie asked. "What are ye doing?"

"Keeping up my end of the bargain," the Rani said. "Actually, I think I'm going one step further; the Doctor would've wanted you returned to him, wouldn't he?"

She touched a button on her computer console, and a metal divider now descended from the ceiling, trapping Jamie and the Doctor in the small, dead-end bit of tunnel.

"We'll be back once we've gone over the next phase of our plans," the Rani said, from the other side of the divider. "By that point in time, you'll no longer be in the picture to trouble us any further."

"What!?" Jamie asked, pounding on the divider as he heard a series of retreating feet. "Just what do ye mean by that…?" The Scot trailed off as the horrifying realization began to dawn on him.

Slowly, he turned on the spot.

The little bit of closed-off tunnel was dark; only a slight glow from the flashing, electronic bits that fed the computer gave any sort of illumination. But that time light was enough to collect and reflect off of the tapetum lucidum in the eyes of the now-hybrid creature standing behind him.

Jamie was frozen to the spot as the red eyeshine continued to glare back at him, and he found himself shaking in fear of the one person he thought could never have wished him harm.


	6. Flowers for Jamie

Jamie didn't say a word as the illuminated eyes drew nearer towards him. He didn't panic. He didn't run—not that there was anywhere to run to. And he even ignored his instincts, which were telling him to fight to defend himself.

How could he fight the Doctor? How could he possibly raise a hand against someone he cared so deeply about?

 _I told him I trusted him_ , the Scot said, silently. _The time Dastari changed him, he scolded me afterwards for taking a risk of going near him, but I told him that I knew he could never attack me_.

The eyes drew closer, and Jamie accepted that he would have to bet his life on what he had vowed.

Strong hands grasped at his shoulders with a viselike hold; Jamie flinched slightly, but, otherwise, didn't retreat.

"You make no attempt to flee… or fight…" the now-coarse voice said.

The Scot still said nothing.

The glowing eyes now leaned in even further, and Jamie could feel his hair being sniffed at again. And that was when the eyes widened.

"…Jamie…?" The Doctor released Jamie's shoulders and now, gently, placed a hand on the side of his face. " _Jamie_ …"

Jamie now allowed himself to react.

"Doctor…?" he whispered, choking on his words.

The Doctor suddenly retreated from him, turning away.

"Doctor!?" Jamie asked, hurt.

"Oh, Jamie… I wish you… you didn't have to see me like this… _again_ …"

"It's nae yer fault!" the Scot said, a tear slipping from each of his eyes. "I was the one who broke my promise… I said they wouldnae let them get ye, but they did anyway. I'm sorry, Doctor…"

He placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder, but the Doctor cringed.

"Get out of here, Jamie. Please."

"I cannae leave ye!"

"You must! Once they find out that I haven't killed you, they'll do it themselves! And I… I still don't know that I won't!"

"I know ye won' now that I've seen this," Jamie said.

"No, Jamie, no; with every moment, I get hungrier… I…." The Doctor groaned, grabbing his bag of jelly babies from his pocket and nearly inhaling the contents. He then spoke again through a full mouth. "You need to leave before I turn on you."

"But I know ye won' do that! Don' ye see, Doctor? Yer protective instincts over me are stronger than the Androgum instincts they gave ye."

"But for _how long_!?" the Doctor hissed. "If I hadn't recognized you just a moment ago…" He trailed off, emitting a sound that was a cross between an exclamation and a sob. "Oh, Jamie…"

"I couldnae leave, even if I wanted to," Jamie reminded him. "The Rani's got us locked in here…"

"That's easily handled," the Doctor said, seizing Jamie's hand and placing something in it.

"…This is the sonic screwdriver."

"Yes; it'll open the divider and let you out; you need to go now. Close it behind you."

"Doctor…"

"GO!" the Doctor snarled, giving what he had intended to be a slight shove. Because of his now Androgum-level strength, however, he knocked Jamie back several feet, who stopped only when he hit the divider.

Jamie stared at him in disbelief.

"That's it, then, aye?" he asked, his voice breaking. "I say goodbye to ye and sneak off to the TARDIS, and I ne'er see ye again?"

"Not if you let the Celestial Intervention Agency know… give them a proper warning… They can hopefully stop this madness. And part of me is still Gallifreyan; perhaps I can find a way out myself."

"That still doesnae mean I can e'er see ye again. What if something happens to that fob watch? What if ye cannae change back?"

"Then… we never meet again. There's too much risk involved with a human being near an Androgum—even me."

"Then this might be goodbye," Jamie said.

"Yes…"

Jamie took a few steps towards him, but was greeted by a snarl.

"Don't come any closer!"

"I want to say goodbye to ye!"

"Say it from there!" the Doctor retorted. "It's for your own good! Now, listen… I've given you everything you need to ensure that you can get out of here and warn the Time Lords of the Rani's plot. I know you can do it. …Goodbye, Jamie."

Jamie stood there, one hand holding the sonic screwdriver, and the other hand outstretched towards the Doctor, but only reaching empty air.

"G…Goodbye, Doctor. And this time, I promise… I… I won' forget ye."

"…And I won't forget you."

The words offered no comfort, coming from the Doctor's now-colder, coarser voice—not that they had offered Jamie any comfort the first time he had heard them at the Doctor's trial.

"On with it, then," the Doctor ordered him. "Before the Rani and the Androgums come back. Go."

The Scot turned, tearfully using the sonic screwdriver to open the divide. He turned back after crossing the threshold, seeing the glowing eyeshine staring back at him for a moment before the divider fell again.

Jamie let out a quiet sob as he turned, trying to keep his emotions in check. His gaze then fell on the Rani's modified chameleon arch. A fresh wave of anger coursed through the Scot; he wanted nothing more than to smash that wretched thing into tiny pieces. He strode over to it, and raised an arm…

…And then he froze, the Doctor's parting words echoing in his brain.

" _There's too much risk involved with a human being near an Androgum_."

" _I've given you everything you need to ensure that you can get out of here and warn the Time Lords of the Rani's plot_."

Jamie quickly withdrew the Doctor's own fob watch and the Doctor's molar from his sporran, and then looked back at the chameleon arch.

"A human would have a harder time getting past the Androgums…" he said. "But they wouldnae be so quick to attack a Time Lord… And the Time Lords would be more likely to listen to a fellow Time Lord than a primitive human!" Hopeful tears sprung to the Scot's face. "Oh! Oh, ye daft, wonderful man!" He ran back to the divider and hammered on it. "I know, Doctor! I know what ye want me to do! I cannae get ye oot of this as a human, but maybe… maybe once I'm a Time Lord, I'll be clever enough to save ye. …I'll do it, Doctor! But I won' go to Gallifrey! I'll save ye! E'en if ye cannae change back, I can still be with ye—I'll be a Gallifreyan, nae human!"

He didn't even stop to listen to the Doctor's reply; he was saying something from behind the divide, but Jamie had long since stopped paying any attention. He emptied out the excess primer from the chameleon arch's last use and placed the molar in the little compartment. He then placed the Doctor's fob watch where he had seen the Rani place the other one, and then placed the arch over his head.

His heart hammered in his chest; he knew it was going to hurt, having heard the Doctor's cry of agony during his transformation. But it would be a small price to pay if it meant not having to leave the Doctor—and finding a way to get him back to normal. After all, when he was a smart Time Lord, it would be easy to outwit the Rani and get back the other fob watch with the Doctor's Gallifreyan essence.

The chameleon arch suddenly activated again in a flash of light. Jamie was rendered temporarily blind by its brilliance—and he soon found himself unable to keep his eyes open anyway, as a surge of pain coursed through him, from the top of his head to his fingers and toes as each and every cell his body was rewritten.

Like the Doctor, Jamie couldn't help but let out an involuntary cry of agony. The cry soon fell short as Jamie's breath hitched with the sudden change of his respiratory system, and then resumed as he regained his breath through a new one.

His heart was still hammering in his chest, and he soon gave another involuntary jolt as he felt a second heart hammering in his chest, as well. Changes… so many changes were sweeping through him.

And then, it stopped. The pain began to ebb away as he adapted to the new sensations all around him. He even heard the footsteps coming from down the corridor well before his now-exemplary night vision—courtesy of the same tapetum lucidum that had made the Doctor's eyes glow red—allowed him to see the Rani approaching him with a look of the utmost fury on her face.

"How did you escape!?" she demanded. "And get _away_ from that thing, you foolish ape!"

Much to the Rani's ire, she found herself being replied to by a scoff. She scowled in response, but then sobered at his reply—

"Ape?" he asked, derisively, all traces of his Scottish accent gone. "I am no ape. Not anymore."

The Rani's eyes widened in realization as the being removed the chameleon arch from around his head, and then took the fob watch from it and held it up, smirking in triumph as he also pulled the Doctor's molar from the primer compartment.

"It was quite foolish of you to leave such a device like this unguarded," he said, in a maddeningly calm voice. "And yet, you scoff at the Doctor for the mistakes he made? It's clear to me that you were schoolmates."

"Don't patronize me, Fool," she scowled. "You've only been a Time Lord for sixty seconds."

"And don't call me 'Fool,'" he replied. "Even if it is sixty seconds, the fact remains that I am now a Time Lord." His eyes flashed in triumph. "I am the Piper."


	7. Between Us Stands a Wall

The Rani glared at the Piper, furious that her modified chameleon arch had been used in such a manner and yet… She couldn't deny that this was far more proof of her experiment's success than she had first intended.

"Your plan appears to have run into an unforeseen hiccup—me," the Piper said, calmly. "I can get word to Gallifrey to warn them about the Androgums."

"The Androgums?" the Rani repeated, amused. "Even now, as a Time Lord, you really believed that I would let them get the run of the galaxy?"

The Piper arched an eyebrow.

"I see…" he said. "You mean to betray the Androgums."

"All I wanted was to have the Doctor converted to a hybrid again," the Rani said. "I needed the Androgums to achieve that. Why would I let _them_ have Gallifrey? And I certainly have no desire for Gallifrey, either. I have enough of Shockeye's genetic material left over to change the Master, the Monk, the War Chief, the Corsair… any other renegade Time Lord; all I want are more subjects with which to experiment with." She smirked. "The Androgums will be abandoned here; I had intended to gather the Doctor after he had finished you off."

"There, we have a problem," the Piper said. "You're free to turn whoever else you want into whatever you want; you won't meet any resistance from me. But there is one thing I require."

"You want the Doctor back."

"Precisely," the Piper agreed, extending a hand. "The fob watch, if you please?"

"I can't grant you that," the Rani said. "The Doctor is instrumental to my plan. And I suggest you leave, now, in the Doctor's old TARDIS—the Androgums are still searching the space station for you."

"They are looking for an ape named Jamie McCrimmon," the Piper corrected her. "He no longer exists."

"Be that as it may, they are still too thick-headed to fully process the notion that you are no longer a Tellurian," the Rani reminded him. "I suggest you leave before they find you. Leave, or I will hand you over to them."

"An empty threat; you wish to study me," the Piper said. "Even if I leave here, after you convert enough Time Lords into hybrids, you'll use the converted Doctor's symbiotic nuclei to locate his TARDIS, and then send your little army to capture me and make me join them."

The Rani said nothing, and the Piper now smirked, knowing he had predicted her plan perfectly.

"It appears that, whether I leave or stay, my fate is not a pretty one. So, I need to take a third option."

"And what is that?" the Rani asked.

"I've succeeded in proving that the Doctor, even in this hybrid state, won't attack me. But can you be so certain that he won't attack _you_?"

The Piper aimed the sonic screwdriver at the metal divider, raising it. The Rani turned around as the Doctor now rushed out of his prison. And the Piper made his move; he grabbed the Rani's chameleon arch and ripped it from the cable that suspended it from the ceiling of the passageway.

"Doctor, come with me!" the Piper ordered, turning and fleeing down the corridor.

He glanced behind him, however, and paused to see the Doctor dragging the Rani down another corridor.

"Doctor—!" the Piper called.

The Piper's mind raced in a moment. Jamie McCrimmon would have taken a calculated risk and gone after them. But the Piper was no longer Jamie McCrimmon. He couldn't act upon sentiment anymore.

He had the Rani's chameleon arch; he had to hide it away in the Doctor's TARDIS first; then and only then could he turn his attention to the Doctor.

At peace with his decision, the Piper raced back to the TARDIS, sneaking through the passageway and using the sonic screwdriver to undo a panel once he was close enough. There were no Androgums about; they had, apparently, noticed that the Rani was missing and were now looking for her.

The Piper now entered the Doctor's TARDIS, the chameleon arch still in hand. Where to keep it? Ah, the study!

As he entered the familiar room and placed the chameleon arch on the study table, the Piper found himself drawn to the hearth-rug, where he could warm himself in the glow of the fire. The warmth was both soothing and energizing; he hadn't realized how much he had needed it, nor how he still wasn't quite used to his new Gallifreyan body.

Outwardly, he looked the same, save for the tapetum lucidum in his eyes; but he was physically stronger now with two hearts, and he had an intelligence that dwarfed that which his human self possessed.

He was convinced that he was improved, in every way possible.

* * *

The Rani, however, was not faring as well. She was not strong enough to fight against the hybrid Doctor's Androgum strength, and he was now dragging her out of the passageway and through the main corridors of the space station.

"Brasher!" he snarled, searching through the crowd of Androgums. "Brasher, where are you!?"

"What news do you have?" Brasher asked.

"Plenty that would interest you," the Doctor hissed. "There is another Time Lord here in the space station, and I overheard this one…" He glared at the Rani. "…Bragging to him about how she was going to abandon all of you here!"

"That is an outright lie!" the Rani yelled. Her entire expression fell as the Androgums now drew in around her, their eyes narrowing in fury.

"Is it, _Lady_?" Brasher growled. "The Doctor is of our mind now; he has no reason to lie to us."

"I suggest we forget about this one," the Doctor said, indicating the Rani. "And take her TARDIS to leave this place."

"You cannot—" the Rani began.

"Silence!" Brasher barked at her. "We have no reason to listen to any more of your treacherous lies!" He then turned to the Doctor. "What of the other Time Lord? Is he with us, or with her?"

"That… remains to be seen," the Doctor said. "My old classmate here had plans for him, so he would not be so keen to join her. However, a Time Lord would not be so keen to join Androgums, either. But, perhaps, with my persuasion…"

"We will need to seek him out, regardless," Brasher said. "We cannot have him warning the Gallifreyans of our master plan; we are dependent upon the element of surprise."

"We will deal with him," the Doctor promised. "But, first, we must get to the Rani's TARDIS and commandeer it."

"You will _never_ commandeer my TARDIS!" the Rani hissed, taking a small test tube she had concealed and smashing it to the floor. A smoky substance formed upon the contents reacting with air, creating a smokescreen that allowed the Rani to flee.

"After her!" the Doctor ordered. "She'll be heading right for her TARDIS to flee! Don't let her get to it!"

The Androgums set off in pursuit—all except Brasher.

"And what will you do, Doctor?" he asked.

"I will search for the other Time Lord; he will be willing to speak with me more than any of you."

Brasher nodded and joined the others in pursuing the Rani. The Doctor watched them go, eagerly.

"Now… to find the other Time Lord… No… no, wait…" He rubbed his temples with his fingers, trying to hold on to his true nature. "Jamie… I must find _Jamie_! I wanted him to get word to Gallifrey…"

He rushed down the maze of corridors, hoping that his TARDIS would not be where he had left it—hoping that Jamie had gone back to Gallifrey.

He let out a grunt of frustration as he saw his TARDIS in the same place; Jamie had not left.

"Jamie! Oh, you hairy-legged Highlander, can't you do as you're told for once in your life!?"

The Piper, having finished his thermoregulation by the fireside, was back in the console room, and had heard the rant outside. Calmly, the Piper took the Stattenheim remote control from the console, opened the door, and stepped outside.

"I knew I could count on you to escape from the Rani of your own volition," the Piper said, pleased. "Quickly, then—use the fob watch and return to your true self."

But the Doctor stared back and the Piper with a blank expression, and the Piper could see that there was no shred of recognition in the Doctor's eyes.

"Who are you?" the Doctor hissed. "What are you doing in my TARDIS!? …Jamie—where is Jamie!?"

The Piper arched an eyebrow.

"It's the same face, Doctor—don't you recognize it? …Of course you don't; you've had trouble with that ever since the Land of Fiction, haven't you?" The Piper rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Thirteen years, and you still can't get it…"

But the Doctor was angry.

"I don't know you!" the Doctor hissed. "Your eyes… your voice… your very scent is different! Where is Jamie!?"

"The human you knew as Jamie is no longer here," the Piper said. "Now, it is just me, the Piper—"

He hadn't expected the Doctor to attack him, but, sure enough, the Doctor did throw a few of those volatile Gallifreyan gems he had stored in his pockets; the Piper hissed as they burned upon contact.

"You doddering old fool!" the Piper snarled. "Have your Androgum senses dulled your Gallifreyan ones so much that you cannot even recognize that your once-human companion has transcended perfection now!?"

The Piper glanced at the Doctor's pockets realizing that he couldn't sense the Doctor's essence that would've been in the fob watch, had the Doctor had it with him.

"And you didn't even think to take the fob watch from the Rani," he muttered, furious. "I haven't the time nor patience to deal with you in this hybrid form; I'll have to retrieve it from her myself!"

The Piper took off down the corridor.

"Oh, no, you don't!" the Doctor snarled. "You will tell me what you've done with Jamie! I won't stand for this!"

"Doctor!" Brasher called, causing the Piper to escape the Doctor by darting around a corridor bend.

"What!?" the Doctor fumed, furious at having lost his quarry.

"Doctor, we lost the treacherous Time Lady," Brasher said.

" _Idiot_!"

"But all is not lost, Doctor—we have located her craft!" Brasher continued. "I managed to procure a spare key to enter it some time ago; we can leave for Gallifrey now!"

"Very well; just let me get my TARDIS…" the Doctor began, but he quickly trailed off as the police box _vwrooped_ and vanished before his eyes, leaving only the now-empty space behind.

"What happened, Doctor?" Brasher asked, confused.

The Doctor responded with a curse in his own tongue.

"That other Time Lord!" he realized. "The one who did something to Jamie—he was in my TARDIS!"

"You didn't kill the Tellurian?" Brasher asked, baffled. "What a waste; the rest of us could have—"

"Never mind about that! That other Time Lord was in my TARDIS, and he must have taken my Stattenheim remote control!"

"Then we must move quickly, Doctor," Brasher said, growing worried. "If he reaches Gallifrey before we do, our entire plan will be for naught. If your people are prepared for us, we will not be able to overrun them."

The Doctor's mind raced furiously. He was in charge of enough of his true self to know that he didn't want the Androgums to take Gallifrey; perhaps he could take them elsewhere once he commandeered the Rani's TARDIS. But what of Jamie, and the mysterious new Time Lord who had commandeered his TARDIS? He couldn't risk finding Jamie while the Androgums were with him; that would end badly for the Scot… assuming that the worst hadn't happened to him already.

 _Jamie… Jamie, what has happened to you?_ he silently asked.

He would have to find out; perhaps he could do what the Rani had intended, and leave the Androgums stranded somewhere. He would then have to figure out what had happened to Jamie, and then find a way to restore himself back to normal. But, always, Jamie held far more importance than himself.

"Well, Doctor?" Brasher asked. "Do I tell the others to prepare to leave this place in the Rani's craft?"

"Yes," the Doctor. "Yes; we must leave here immediately!"

Brasher nodded and beckoned the Doctor to follow him. The hybrid Time Lord did so, vowing to eventually find Jamie—and also vowing to punish that Time Lord who had clearly done something terrible to him.


	8. Total Control

Elsewhere in the space station, the Rani was running through the internal passageways that housed the numerous computer wires, trying to figure out a way to return to her TARDIS and escape. She would have to abandon the Doctor here with the rest of them. At least her experiment had been successful; she could retrieve her chameleon arch and seek out other renegades to use as experimental subjects.

The Rani stopped dead as she reached the place where she had left the device; because of the Doctor dragging her away, she hadn't realized that the Piper had already taken it. She soon put two and two together, however, as she saw the Piper standing there, his arms folded and a smug expression on his face.

"Where is it?" she demanded.

"Guess."

"It's in the Doctor's TARDIS, isn't it?"

"If you can find her; she's is not where the Doctor left her," the Piper said, with a smirk. "And you're hardly in a position to go around searching for her with those Androgums on your tail. Oh dear, oh dear…"

"You just _had_ to use _his_ DNA to prime your transformation," the Rani hissed. "The last thing I need is two of you!"

"What you need is a way out of here—and you won't make it back to your TARDIS without someone who knows every in and out of these internal passageways," the Piper said. "You only know of this main tunnel. But there are others—including one that leads right back to where you left your TARDIS. You see, when my human self was trapped here during the Sontaran massacre, he memorized these passageways; he had to, of course—he was stuck resorting to living here just to stay alive. Fortunately, I have access to that knowledge, and used it to make it here before you; I couldn't help but notice your TARDIS while I was on my way here."

"And you will give me this information only for a price, I take it?" the Rani asked, scowling.

"Yes."

"Insolent cad!" the Rani hissed at him. "It's your fault entirely that we're in this situation!"

"My fault?" the Piper asked, incredulously. "I was not the one who lied to the Androgums' faces. I was not the one who dragged the Doctor and my human self here. And I was not the one who did this inane experiment!"

"This 'inane experiment' has elevated you to the pinnacle of biological perfection!" the Rani said. "That is price enough for you to lead me to me TARDIS!"

"It was not a perfection that I asked for, despite the fact that I do enjoy it. My price is the fob watch that holds the Doctor's essence."

"You can have him," the Rani said, bitterly, resigned to her fate. She could develop another chameleon arch, but not if the Androgums stranded her here—or worse. "But not until you lead me to my TARDIS safely."

The Piper inclined his head in a brief nod.

"This way," he said, using the sonic screwdriver on one of the panels to reveal a smaller passageway within the large one.

They were both silent as the Piper led the Rani through a series of tiny passageways. At last, he opened a panel, revealing the small, darkened room where the Rani had left her pyramid-shaped TARDIS.

"The watch?" the Piper said, blocking her exit.

The Rani handed him the fob watch; just to be sure, the Piper sniffed it to confirm that it was the genuine article. He then placed it in his sporran, stepped aside, and gave the Rani a mock bow.

"Don't think for a moment that this is over," the Rani warned him.

The Piper said nothing, instead responding with a smirk that unnerved the Time Lady at the sight of it.

"What do you know?" she demanded.

"My part of the bargain is finished," the Piper said. "I said that I would lead you to your TARDIS; I cannot guarantee anything else."

The Rani seized the Piper's wrist, using touch telepathy for an instant before the Piper attempted to seal off his thoughts. Among the things she saw was a glimpse of the Doctor and Brasher's conversation, and Brasher's brag that he had procured a key to her TARDIS. The Rani paled; a key had gone unaccounted for, but she had not suspected that Brasher had taken it even before the experiment had begun.

"You're coming with me," she declared.

"Into your TARDIS? I think not!" the Piper scoffed.

The Rani responded by throwing the Piper over her shoulder; she then quickly pulled him up and pinned an arm behind his back.

"You were ready to let them finish me, weren't you?" she hissed. "Well, then, _you_ can be the live bait to keep them busy."

"I refuse."

"The Doctor is on board," the Rani reminded him. "That fob watch I gave you won't be of any use if I escape them and send them all out into the Time Vortex. You know how easily I can accomplish that—just take off with the doors open…"

The Piper paled now; his human memories still held that unforgettable sound of Ramon Salamander's horrified screaming as he was pulled into the Vortex.

"How do I know you won't send us all into the Vortex when I enter?" he asked, accusingly.

"You won't," the Rani said. "But you'll be with the Doctor regardless of what I do, won't you? And I know that one of you would have something to get you out of that predicament."

The Piper cursed his inability to fully conceal his consciousness; the fact did remain that he had the Stattenheim remote control in his pocket. Even if they were flung into the Vortex, the Piper could time it so that he and the Doctor would fall into the Doctor's TARDIS. Even if the Rani would escape without answering for what she had done, the Piper could at least ensure the safety of himself and the Doctor. And that was the most important thing; even if logic stated otherwise, he could not abandon the Doctor.

"Very well; the Doctor's safety is what I desire above all else. I will serve as your diversion to ensure it."

"I thought as much. You see, that was the downside of using the Doctor's DNA to prime my chameleon arch—you seemed to have been stuck with his annoying sentiment. It never did him any good, either."

The Rani ushered the Piper forward, having him enter her TARDIS first once she had unlocked the door. The Piper slowly glanced around the console room, wary of being ambushed by the Androgums.

"There is no one in the room," he said. "Either they are hiding in the depths of your TARDIS, or they haven't even reached it yet."

"Well, I'm not going to wait for them to find it," the Rani stated, immediately going to the console. "We're taking off; if they are on board, I'll take my TARDIS into the vortex and have them all stranded there— _NO_!"

The Piper gave a start, looking to the scanner to see a message in Gallifreyan—one from the Doctor.

 _Now the tables turn, Old Friend_.

"He's turned my own retractor beam against my own TARDIS!" the Rani fumed, her eyes blazing.

"I do so hate to state the obvious, but you were the one who used it on our TARDIS first…"

The Rani froze.

"They'll be on board—all of them," she said. "You—lead."

"It's _your_ TARDIS; how do you expect me to lead?" the Piper countered.

"I will tell you where to go; remember that the Doctor's safety is in your hands!" she warned him.

'We've already established that," the Piper muttered, as he headed down the corridor, into the depths of the TARDIS.

And it was only after they had made significant distance down the corridor that the lights started flickering.

"Did the Doctor tamper with the lights, as well?" the Piper wondered aloud.

"No…" the Rani said, frowning. "My TARDIS's console wouldn't control the lights here; she controls the lights here on her own." Her eyes widened, and she froze in her tracks. "She's trying to warn us!"

The Piper and the Rani now looked up as dozens of Androgums, clinging to grappling hooks that had been launched into the ceiling. The Rani now fled through a door, and half of the Androgums pursued her as the other half pursued the Piper down the corridor. The Piper was smaller than they were, but faster, and the Rani's TARDIS was actually making his escape easier by opening doors for him and closing them behind him; the Piper wasn't sure, but it seemed as though that, despite his enmity with the Rani, her TARDIS realized that the Piper was key in ridding her of Androgums, and was helping him on purpose. And the Piper had to take advantage of that.

"Take me to the Doctor," he murmured to the Rani's TARDIS, as he ran. "I have the fob watch to change him back; he won't aid the Androgums anymore if I change him back. And then we can get them out of here."

A side door opened now, revealing a darkened room. The Piper slipped inside and the door closed behind him. The Piper could hear the Androgums rushing past, but the Piper's eyes were focused on the glowing red tapetum lucidum of the Doctor's eyes at the other end of the room; as the Piper had them, too, he could see the Doctor just as well as the Doctor could see him.

"So…" the Doctor hissed. "You decided to aid the Rani, after all? Was it fear of me that drove you to it?"

"I am not aiding the Rani," the Piper said. "She threatened you if I did not cooperate; neither of us could have imagined that you went to such lengths in the time it took for us to arrive here."

"And why does my fate concern you?" the hybrid creature demanded. "You, who stole my TARDIS—and did something to my…" He trailed off, his voice cracking with emotion. "…To Jamie."

"I improved him," the Piper said, working out, in his head, just how to turn the Doctor back. A direct approach wouldn't work; the Doctor's modified strength would be too much for the Piper to handle.

"He's nowhere to be found!" the Doctor hissed.

"If you only opened your eyes to the truth, you would see exactly what happened to him!" the Piper said, now realizing that the best way would be to get the Doctor to come to him—and goading him to attack seemed like the best option.

"Whatever it was that happened to him, it was you who did it, didn't you!?" the Doctor accused.

"Yes," the Piper said. "'Jamie McCrimmon' had to give up his existence in order to ensure mine."

The Piper had expected those words to be the ones that made the Doctor snap, and, sure enough, with a furious snarl, the Doctor charged at him.

The Piper took out the fob watch containing the Doctor's essence, and, as the Doctor seized him in his strong grip, the Piper held the watch up in front of the Doctor's face and opened it.

The Doctor froze as his essence returned to him; the warts on his face vanished as his normal features and voice returned.

"I… oh…" he said, releasing the Piper and taking the watch. "I… I'm myself again, aren't I?" He paused, feeling his face for a moment, and then glared back at the Piper. "That doesn't excuse you and what you've done!"

" _Doctor_ …" the Piper said, exasperated. Wordlessly, he took out the second watch from his sporran. The Doctor's eyes widened.

"That's the watch I gave Jamie…" he said. "And you've got it—and you're wearing his clothes!" He sniffed at the closed watch as the Piper held it out to him, and the realization struck him. "Jamie!? Jamie, it _is_ you! Oh, do forgive me; I've always had a bit of trouble with your face…"

"Yes, I know," the Piper said, darkly. "And that name of Jamie doesn't apply to me. I am-"

"The Piper, yes, I'm so sorry," the Doctor said. "You do look wonderful—truly wonderful! And that's a fine choice for a name, of course, and I'm so glad to see that you worked out my plan—or part of it. You were supposed to warn Gallifrey after you changed! …Not that I'm not grateful for your turning me back… Ah, let's forget it; I say we leave this TARDIS, go back to our own, and once you've changed back to your human self, we can have a nice holiday at the Eye of Orion!"

"Change back?" the Piper repeated, incredulously.

The Doctor, who had been heading for the door of the room, now stopped dead in his tracks.

"Well, of course!" he said, a growing unease filling his hearts as he took note of the Piper's tone. "That was the plan; stop the Androgums, and then, once we were safe, have you change back to your human self!"

"That may have been your plan, Doctor, but it doesn't fit into the ideas that I have in mind," the Piper said. "I'm not changing back."


	9. I am not That

The Doctor stared at the Piper in some amount of shock. After briefly checking outside to make sure there were no Androgums within earshot, the Doctor closed the door and looked back at him.

"Not changing back?" he asked, stunned. "But you _must_ change back! You can't just… become a Time Lord and forget all about your human self!"

"Why not?" the Piper asked. "When I have reached the pinnacle of biological perfection, why would I ever go back down? Doctor, that pathetic little ape served one purpose, and that was to allow my existence."

"Jamie McCrimmon was my dear and loyal companion!" the Doctor hissed, his Lungbarrow eyes blazing.

"And the Piper can, no doubt, take his place," the other Time Lord said. "Only he will be smarter. Imagine, Doctor—a companion who can actually help you in destroying the Great Intelligence, instead of letting it go!"

"That was an honest mistake he made," the Doctor said. "And despite whatever I might have said at the time, I do not hold it against him!"

"It never would have happened, Doctor, if he had been a Gallifreyan sooner," the Piper said. "Touch telepathy would have told me your plan."

"I wouldn't have traded Jamie for you just like that!" the Doctor countered. "I was against it even now; I was only desperate to ensure that he would make it past the Androgums, which I knew he had lesser chance of as a human—"

"And why is that, Doctor?"

"Well…"

"You know the answer," the Piper said, accusingly. "You know that the Gallifreyans are more respected than an ape ever could be. You know that the Androgums wouldn't think twice about consuming a human, but would be less quick to do so to a Gallifreyan; even though the Rani betrayed them, I will wager that they decided that they want her captured alive, at least for the present."

The Doctor didn't reply, but the Piper knew his silence was an agreement—albeit a reluctant one.

"And despite any of that, the fact remains that, at last, I have attained perfection," the Piper continued. "Why do you wish to take that from me?"

"The warmth is gone from your eyes," the Doctor stated, plainly.

"That was neither practical nor necessary," the Piper responded. "What I have now will take me far—further than I could hope. Imagine the heights I could reach on Gallifrey! …With enough time to gain status and to work out a plan, I could have you exonerated from your sentence, Doctor. Isn't that what you want most—to travel the universe of time and space as freely as you did before?"

"Without Jamie? That could never be as before."

"Forget him! I already have! He did nothing but hold everyone back—including himself. Including me. Travel with Zoe again; she is a human worthy of your time. Jamie McCrimmon was-"

"Jamie McCrimmon is precious to me!" the Doctor hissed, now taking a step towards the Piper.

"A foolish ape who bumbled and spoke in—and I quote your own words—an appalling mongrel dialect?" The Piper smirked as the Doctor paled.

"Well, I never _meant_ it!"

"Just as you claim now never to have meant what you said to him after the Intelligence escaped?" the Piper asked. "'Now you've gone and ruined everything!' Getting his memories back came with a price, Doctor—and that was that he would get all of his memories back, including this one. So long ago, it was—and he never forgot again. It was always in the back of his mind, reminding him that he would always be a primitive who knew so little, compared to the wonderful Time Lord who knew so much more than he did. And now, at last, he is a wonderful Time Lord, as well."

The Doctor was silently fuming, but there was nothing he could say.

"Jamie won't ruin anything ever again," the Piper finished.

"Jamie did wonderful things," the Doctor now stated, glaring at the Piper. "Jamie could do wonderful things that you can never do."

The Piper scoffed.

"Name them. Name one."

"He's caring and kind—"

"As am I," the Piper said. "I successfully rescued you from the Rani and reversed your transformation, risking my own life to rescue you. Would I have done that if I wasn't caring and concerned for you?"

"You still care for me," the Doctor observed, now realizing that he could catch more flies with honey instead of vinegar. "Even with this change, you still care for me."

"How could I not?" the Piper asked. "Jamie would have died at Culloden Moor had it not been for you; I could not exist if that had happened. I owe you my existence. I owe you a debt that cannot be repaid."

"Jamie and I never had any debts between us," the Doctor said. "We only had our mutual trust and care for each other. I do not expect there to be any debts between myself and you. Even if you are not Jamie, you are still someone I care for."

"I am honored, Doctor," the Piper replied, surprised at the Doctor's sudden change of tone.

"Yes, I expect you are. But if you are as concerned for me as I think you are, then I have a request for you. It would mean more to me than my freedom—more than time and space itself."

"Name it."

"Give Jamie back to me."

Now it was the Piper's turn to pale. Rather than continue fighting the Piper for Jamie's return, the Doctor was, instead, attacking in a different way—an underhanded, but nevertheless effective, way.

"But I'm better than him!" the younger Time Lord insisted. "His existence is but a blink of an eye—I can walk for millennia with you!"

"Give him back to me," the Doctor said again, gently.

The Piper averted his gaze, now contemplating his newly-developed existential crisis. Why? Why was the Doctor pleading with him to do this?

"Doctor, I cannot…" the Piper began, but paused. He knew he owed the Doctor something, despite however much he didn't want to revert back to his human self. "…You claim that Jamie is better than me—that he could do 'wonderful things that I never could.' Very well, Doctor. The moment I am convinced that Jamie can do something better than I can, I will give him back to you."

The Doctor arched an eyebrow, but then looked much more hopeful.

"Yes, I believe that can be arranged," he said, with a cryptic smile.

"And I am convinced otherwise," the Piper said. "However, I still feel that you need something of him to comfort you…" He paused again, thinking for a moment. "You said that you and Jamie based your relationship upon mutual trust and care, and that the same would apply for us, is that not so?"

"Yes, that is correct," the Doctor agreed.

"In that case, Doctor, I give you this to hold, as I know how much it would mean to you," the Piper said, taking out the pocket watch with Jamie's essence. "Under the mutual understanding that you will never use it to change me back against my will, and that you will return it to me the moment I ask."

"Yes. I shan't deny that I would be tempted to turn you back, but I wouldn't act upon it," the Doctor promised. "I would only want Jamie to return to me after an understanding between the two of you. Besides that, I know it would be foolish to turn you back into Jamie with all these Androgums everywhere."

"Indeed," the Piper said, handing the watch to the Doctor, who gazed at it fondly for a moment before placing it in his chest pocket. "And as for the Androgums, well… how about we get away from them while we can?"

The Doctor smiled now and beckoned for the Piper to follow him out the door of the room. However, they both paused to see the Rani just outside the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" she accused, not at all surprised to see the Doctor restored to his normal self.

"Ah," both Time Lords said, in unison. "We were—"

"If you think my TARDIS will let the two of you leave while these Androgums are here, threatening me, you are sorely mistaken."

"She let me turn the retractor beam on her," the Doctor pointed out. "Not even the slightest bit of resistance…"

"Only because she was too busy keeping the Androgums out of the engine room!" the Rani quipped.

"Then I suggest letting the Doctor turn the retractor beam off," the Piper said. "We can leave, and then you can do what you intended—let all of the Androgums get pulled into the Vortex."

"I still say that this is your fault—both of you," the Rani growled. "But I have no other choice. I only hope that the Androgums didn't get into my experiments; if they harm my _Tyrannosaurus_ embryos, I'll…"

The Doctor and the Piper both stared at her.

"Never you mind," she quipped, scowling as they both smirked. "The corridors seem to be empty of Androgums for the moment; I suggest we free the console now while they are occupied."

"Yes, I think we ought to," the Doctor said, and he and the Piper began to follow the Rani as she turned to lead them back to the console room.

As they walked, the Doctor quickly grasped the Piper's wrist, using touch-telepathy to transmit a message.

 _Keep your guard up. They'll most likely be waiting for us there_.

The Piper's hearts each skipped a beat, but he answered in the affirmative, relieved that even though the Doctor thought more of Jamie than of him, he still treated the both of them the same way.


	10. The Upside of Goodbye

Silently, the Doctor and the Piper followed the Rani back to the console room, the both of them on edge. The Rani, too was sensing something amiss, and slowed down just as they reached the room. To her horror, the lights started flickering again in warning.

This time, however, the Androgums swarmed them, grabbing their arms and holding them.

"So!" Brasher roared. "You, Doctor, betrayed us, as well—you turned the Tellurian into one of your own, and then pretended that you didn't know it was him!"

"I _didn't_ know it was him!" the Doctor protested. "Androgum senses were clouding my own!"

"That no longer matters!" Brasher growled. "What matters is that you overrode this TARDIS; now we can go to Gallifrey! You see, Doctor, we no longer need you; we just need a way to get there, and we have, thanks to your disabling the security measures when you were still working for us! And now, I have programmed this craft to take us right to the heart of your glass-domed city!"

The Doctor bowed his head, seemingly in defeat as the Rani hissed at him in Gallifreyan—which the Piper could now understand, as well.

" _Now do you see what your interference has wrought!? Even if we survive this, the High Council will surely take away our regenerations and execute us for this_!"

" _You started this whole mess by getting involved with the Androgums in the first place_!" the Piper said, rushing to defend the Doctor.

Whatever response the Rani had planned was preempted by her TARDIS taking off. The Androgums roared in triumph. The Piper looked to the Doctor in desperation, wondering if he had any sort of plan. To his surprise, he could see a smirk threatening to push its way through the Doctor's features. The Piper's eyes widened for a moment before he looked away; all was not lost, then!

" _Don't you have anything to say for yourself_!?" the Rani now fumed at the Doctor.

" _Leave him be_ ," the Piper ordered.

"Enough!" Brasher yelled, as the TARDIS engines stopped. His eyes gleamed, eagerly. "We are here! We will utilize the element of surprise while we still have it!" He stepped over to the console as the majority of the Androgums positioned themselves in front of the doors. "When I open the doors, you will use your strength to overpower every single Gallifreyan we come across!"

The creatures grunted in agreement.

"At last…" Brasher said. "Gallifrey is ours!"

He opened the doors, and the Androgums rushed out, roaring in triumph. But the triumphant roars soon switch to howls of fear that were cut off by a series of splashes, and only the last wave of Androgums—about a dozen remained, staring horrified outside.

"What has happened!?" Brasher bellowed.

"This isn't Gallifrey!" an Androgum fumed. "This is our planet! This craft is suspended in midair over our planet!"

Brasher strode over to the doors, looking down to see the dazed Androgums floundering in the water below.

And the Androgums holding the three Time Lords now loosened their grips, trying to see for themselves. The Doctor chose that moment to make his move.

"HAI!" he exclaimed, using Venusian aikido on the one that had been holding him; the beast fell after a few blows.

The Piper followed suit on his former captor, while the Rani simply dispatched the third by exploiting the pressure points on the Androgum's neck. Soon, the three of them were facing Brasher and the last line of Androgums.

"What happened!?" Brasher bellowed, looking furiously to the Rani. "What did you do!?"

"I did nothing!" the Rani hissed. "That cretin over there was the one who overrode my TARDIS when he was a hybrid!"

"Yes, quite right; I did," the Doctor said, unapologetically. "But, you see, Brasher, you made the assumption that I was working for you when I was a hybrid. I never was. Jamie had been right all along about me—that I wouldn't attack him, and that my protective instincts over him would allow me to stay in control of myself. Not only that, but thinking of Jamie—and my goal of finding him again—was enough to give me the presence of mind to set the navigation coordinates for your planet, just in case you tried to take this TARDIS to Gallifrey yourself." He sighed. "Jamie has always been my moral compass—and he continued to be, even after he was gone."

The Piper bit his lip, choosing not to react to any of what the Doctor had said about Jamie.

Brasher, however, did not have such self-control. With a roar of fury, he led the other Androgums in attacking the three Gallifreyans.

" _The doors_!" the Doctor said, in their own tongue. " _We shan't be able to overpower them all; we'll have to use leverage to get them to join the others_!"

The Piper nodded and allowed the Androgums to chase them around the console towards the doors. The Rani, however, had other plans; she focused on her controls, trying to override the Doctor's override and regain control of her TARDIS, stopping only to pinch the pressure points of one of the Androgums that halted its chase to deal with her. There was one surefire way to get all of the Androgums off of her TARDIS, she knew—taking off with the doors open, which would rid her of not only the Androgums, but the Doctor and the Piper, as well, in one fell swoop.

Meanwhile, one by one, the Doctor and the Piper utilized Venusian aikido to force their enemies overboard and into the water below. Their opponents outweighed them and were more powerful, but attacking in tandem allowed the two Time Lords to gain enough leverage.

And Brasher saw red. Knowing that this TARDIS was out of his reach, he opted to take revenge on the Doctor; he launched at the Time Lord in a flying tackle. The Doctor froze for a moment just before the tackle hit home, the momentum sending them both out of the TARDIS. At the last second, one of the Doctor's failing hands clutched at the edge of the TARDIS's floor; Brasher hung on to the Doctor's legs, forcing the Doctor to carry both of their wright as his fingers desperately tried to anchor themselves to the floor.

"Jamie!" he cried out. " _Jamie_!"

There was no Jamie—only the Piper, who saw the situation, and was beginning to assess what the risk would be in attempting to free the Doctor from Brasher's grip. He knew the Rani would head for the Vortex the moment she regained control of the TARDIS, and the remaining Androgums were converging on him; he would have to decide if the risk was worth taking…

" _JAMIE_!"

The Doctor's panic-stricken voice filled the Piper's ears, and the Piper was momentarily disgusted with himself. Wasting no more time, the Piper leaped over both of them, landing such that his foot planted on Brasher's face.

With a roar, the Androgum let go of the Doctor, trying in vain to grab at the Piper. He failed, falling into the water.

The Piper would have followed, as well, had the Doctor not used his free hand to seize his arm.

"Oh dear…" he gasped, as the remaining Androgums on board now leered over him.

"Doctor, let go!" the Piper cried, as he fished in his sporran.

"What!?"

"Trust me; just let go!" the Piper pleaded. His hearts skipped a beat again as he heard the Rani exclaim in triumph, and then heard a deep _clungg_ —a sound that immediately preceded a TARDIS's take-off. "Doctor, please!"

The Doctor agreed, and they fell towards the water as the Rani's TARDIS dematerialized. The fates of the Androgums aboard the Rani's TARDIS were sealed, but the Androgums below in the water roared and yelled as the Doctor and the Piper fell—Brasher's voice being the loudest of all.

The Piper then pressed the button on the Stattenheim remote control; mere feet above the water—and below the falling the Time Lords—the familiar police box materialized on her side, and the two of them fell into the familiar console room. They continued to stay there, against the back wall, stunned, as the doors closed. Brasher let out one last roar of useless fury as the police box dematerialized.

"Why didn't you _tell_ me you had the Stattenheim with you?" the Doctor said, after a long pause.

"I was too preoccupied with using it at the proper moment," the Piper responded. "…You're welcome, by the way.

"Hmm? Oh! Oh, yes. Thank you for that apt timing. …Though it too you long enough to act."

"Yes…" the Piper said, dully.

This didn't escape the Doctor, who now got up, helping the younger Time Lord up, as well. The Doctor then crossed over to the console, rubbing his hands together before adjusting the controls.

"Now, then, the Rani will be out of our reach by now, and the Vortex will be filled with flying Androgums," he said. "Rather than stay in the Vortex and deal with a potential collision, I say we visit the Eye of Orion and calm our nerves like we first intended to do before this whole mess started. …Well, that is to say, like Jamie and I first intended to do before this whole mess started." The Doctor sighed, wistfully. "You'll like it either way, I'm sure."

"I don't think so," the Piper said. " _I'm_ not going to the Eye of Orion."

"No?" the Doctor asked, looking up, but not looking too surprised.

The Piper shook his head.

"Doctor, it is time that you and I said goodbye."

"Goodbye?" the Doctor repeated. "Well… Oh, I suppose it is wrong of me not to let you go to the Academy, isn't it? Great things await you there."

"I'm not going to the Academy, either," the Piper said, with a wan smile. "Doctor, you can drop the act."

"Why, whatever do you mean?"

"Doctor, I know you. You could have gotten out of the way of Brasher's charge. Your reflexes aren't _that_ bad."

"Well, there was a chance he might have gone after you had I not taken the attack."

"To say nothing of the fact that it illustrated your argument," the Piper said. "Not only did you do it to save me, you did it to prove a point."

"It was a risk," the Doctor said. "And my main intent was to save you; the point, assuming there is one, was a bonus."

"There was a point," the Piper sighed. "Oh, Doctor, I should have known better than to think I'd win an argument against you… Just tell me one thing—when you cried out for Jamie, was that intentional, or a reflex?"

"The first two times, it was a reflex," the Doctor said. "But then you hesitated, didn't you? The Piper hesitated."

"I was calculating the risk," the Piper said, bitterly. "You didn't hesitate to take Brasher's attack for me, but I was calculating the risk I would put myself in if I tried to save you from him."

"And so, the third time, I called for Jamie intentionally," the Doctor admitted. "The chameleon arch does separate your entities, but your entities are still tied together—you cannot escape that fact."

"You called for Jamie, because Jamie wouldn't hesitate to help you," the Piper said. "And, in doing so, you proved your argument. That the human could do something better than I could."

The Doctor now pulled the fob watch with Jamie's essence out of his pocket and held it out to the Piper.

"I may have proved my point, but I stand by what I said; I shan't force you to change back. But I shan't lie, either; Jamie means a great deal to me."

The Piper took the watch, staring at it for a moment as it rested in his hand.

"It's alright, Doctor," he said, after a while. A smile crossed his features. "You mean a great deal to him, too. And I know he can look after you far better than I ever could." He paused again, sighing deeply as he registered his dual heartbeats one more time. "Goodbye, Doctor."

"Goodbye," the Doctor said, with a nod.

The Piper opened the watch, his breath stilling momentarily as the human essence reentered his body. The process of changing back wasn't as painful as the initial transformation had been, but suddenly reverting back to a solitary heart and having an entire brain chemistry rewritten was more than a little disorienting. He took a few step forwards and stumbled, but the Doctor's arms were around him in an instant.

"Are you alright?" the Time Lord asked him, softly.

Hazel eyes, no longer glowing with _tapetum lucidum_ , looked back up at the Doctor with some amount of trepidation.

"Aye…"

His old dialect had returned to him, and it was music to the Doctor's ears. The Gallifreyan drew his now-human-again companion close.

"Welcome back, Jamie."

**Epilogue: Nine Times Blue**

It was an awkward evening spent beside the fireside; though they had landed in the Eye of Orion, the crackling fire proved to be too much for the Doctor to resist. He seemed hungrier than usual—a residue of his transformation, he decided, and Jamie took the opportunity to retrieve some of the friend Gumblejack from that morning. The Doctor was no fool; he knew Jamie was walking on eggshells around him, and as Jamie returned with the platter of fish, the Doctor addressed it.

"I'm not upset with you, Jamie," he promised. "How could I be? I was the one who set everything up for you to change; I wanted you to be safe. It never occurred to me just how harshly you viewed yourself; I know I've done my best to convince you that you are brilliant, but I fear it wasn't enough."

"I don' know what ye're talking aboot," Jamie said. "It was the Piper who hated me. I'm nae really him."

"I know how chameleon arches work, Jamie; I own one of my own, though I've never had to use it," the Doctor said. "Even with an arch modified by the Rani, one thing stays the same; the consciousness brought about by the transformation is driven by instinct, yes… But the personality of the new form is something from deep within the user's subconscious. You saw it with me, after all, and you were right—even with Androgum instincts, I could never hurt you. The Piper was a part of you, and that means that everything he said was something you believed about yourself."

Jamie looked away, staring at the fire.

"When you rejoined me after you were sent back to your own time, we had a discussion," the Doctor reminded him. "I wanted to teach you the Gallifreyan language, and you thought you weren't good enough. You told me that people from your own time, and various other creatures we had encountered had belittled you and your intelligence, and I told you they were wrong. You agreed to the lessons, and I truly thought we had made progress. And now, years later, I find that you still view yourself so lowly."

"It's nae like that," Jamie said. "…Though hearing Shockeye saying things like I was too primitive to feel pain while he was tenderizing my leg di'n help. I know ye think highly of me, and I try to live up to yer expectations, too—I really do! But the Piper was cleverer, and just because he was a Time Lord, he was respected more than I could e'er be. I wanted that. I knew if I was the Piper, I'd be _something_ , and he knew it, too. …Och, but it doesnae matter now, does it? I'm nothing again."

"Jamie, you are _everything_ to me."

The Scot looked back at the Time Lord, who looked back at him with a gentle, sincere expression before drawing him close.

"Aye, I know," Jamie said, blinking back a few tears. "And that's why he let me come back to ye—the Piper, I mean. As much as we wanted that cleverness and respect, we di'n want it at the cost of yer happiness—or safety, as that tangle with Brasher showed."

The Doctor gently pressed his forehead against Jamie's.

 _I truly did miss you_ , he silently transmitted.

"Aye, I know ye did," Jamie began, and then he paused. "Hey… I heard ye better. I can read ye better now when ye do that thought-transmission thing!"

"Must be a residual effect of your transformation, as well," the Doctor mused. "But, never mind that; it's probably restricted to a slight increase in being able to receive transmission of my thoughts, as it was my DNA you used to prime the Rani's chameleon arch. …Oh, crumbs; we never took it from her!"

"The Piper did; it's in yer desk there," Jamie said, with a lopsided smile. "Yer tooth is in there, too."

The Doctor sighed.

"Still a waste of a perfectly good molar. I hope this trend of losing a tooth per regeneration doesn't stick…"

Jamie chuckled.

"Doesn't stop ye from eating the fish, does it?"

"Well, it's only a molar. You haven't eaten since breakfast, either; go on, then…"

Both he and Jamie partook of the fried Gumblejack for a while.

"You know," the Doctor said, after a while. "I did say I have a chameleon arch of my own. If things ever get to the point that you want to be the Piper again, we could arrange his return."

Jamie pondered this for a moment.

"No," he said, at last. "He's too clever when it comes to self-preservation. And ye need all the help ye can get."

"Oh, really—!"

"Besides," Jamie interrupted. "I think the Piper and I both agree that we couldn't take away yer happiness again."

"Now that is an answer I can appreciate," the Doctor smiled, taking out the teakettle from that morning's breakfast.

Jamie stared at it.

"Isn't that…"

"The teakettle you took to the pub the night before and filled with scotch?" the Doctor finished, taking two small glassed from his pocket. "Yes, it is. I do believe that your return is a celebratory occasion."

He decanted some of the liquid into the two glasses and handed one to Jamie.

"Cheers?" he offered.

The Scot grinned and gently brought his glass to meet the Doctor's.

"Cheers."

They drank, and Jamie had to admit that he was content; being human had its advantages, and despite being different species once again, it didn't change the fact that he and the Doctor were still a tiny, mixed-up family.

That was the only thing that mattered.

**The End**


End file.
